Welcome to the 20th Guardian, Observer and Guardian
Unlimited Travel Awards. When the Observer launched these
awards two decades ago, they were the first reader awards of
any kind to feature in a national newspaper. They were fairly
basic, with only five categories: best tour operator (Thomson),
favourite airline (British Airways), favourite UK destination (Lake
District), short-haul (France) and long-haul destination (US). But
then so was the way we travelled back then: take a break in the
UK, or book a package deal with a travel agent to somewhere
sunny.

In terms of destinations, France and the US, were the old
favourites, but over the years, our readers have become much
more adventurous, and countries from Iceland to Slovenia, and
Chile to New Zealand have since topped these categories.